Traditions of Magic in Late Antiquity

INTRODUCTION

"Magic," as modern scholars have grudgingly learned to admit, is
a very elusive category. No definition of "magic" has ever found
universal acceptance, and countless attempts to separate it from
"religion" on the one hand and "science" on the other have borne few, if
any, fruits. The problem lies, to a large extent, in that what one
society may label "magic," another would label "religion," and another
"science," so that by choosing one label we are implicitly choosing sides
whenever conflicting definitions of magic compete with each other, or run
the risk of imposing our own categories upon societies in which these
categories would have made no sense.

Given these difficulties, the present exhibition will not attempt any
definition of ancient magic. Its goal is much more modest -- merely to
present some of the materials in the University of Michigan's collections
which might prove useful in any discussion of magic and its practitioners
in the Mediterranean basin and the Near East from the 1st to the 7th
centuries A.D., a period which saw the magical traditions of several
different cultures coalesce and merge into an unprecedented form of
international, and even multicultural magical praxis, with its own
rituals, symbols, and words of power. Presenting the available evidence,
and pointing to some of the interrelations between different types of
evidence and to the possible origins of some of the motifs and practices
embedded in it, are only first steps on the road to understanding, but
crucial steps nonetheless. Moreover, the fact that until quite recently
this aspect of that civilization which we often call Greco-Roman has
received far less attention than it deserves renders such an exhibition
even more significant. Finally, the study of ancient magic can teach us
much not only about ancient society, but about human nature and human
social structures in general, especially as they relate to the
generation, accumulation, and transmission of knowledge about the powers
above and the powers below. Magic, after all, is just another
manifestation of the innate human desire for control -- to control our
natural environment, to control our social world, and eventually to
control our own destiny. The techniques may have changed over the last
fifteen centuries, but the goals remain the same.

The current exhibition is divided into three sections: one deals with
manuals of magical practices, another presents various protective devices,
and the third presents some of the more aggressive uses of ancient magic.
The wall cases display enlarged photographs of some of the items, allowing
a closer examination of even the smallest details.

The present
catalogue contains translations of most items, accompanied by brief
comments and notes. It must be stressed, however, that both translations
and notes are tentative -- the texts and images often defy interpretation,
and much remains unknown. If the present exhibition will contribute to a
growing interest in, and a closer study of these intriguing sources, it
will have achieved its goal.